1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to dental equipment, and more particularly to an intraoral dental apparatus with increased functionality.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recall that many dental procedures have the dental professional place a fluoride tray, impression tray, bite registration tray, or other object (i.e., an intraoral dental apparatus) into the patient's mouth. The intraoral apparatus facilitates the procedure undertaken. However, it also stimulates the salivary process sufficiently to cause some problems.
Consider a typical fluoride treatment. The dental professional places a fluoride tray filled with an acidulated fluoride composition into the patient's mouth. That is done to hold the substance in contact with the teeth for several minutes. During that period, however, the fluoride tray causes significant salivation that the taste of the acidulated fluoride composition only increases.
The dental professional has instructed the patient not to swallow during the procedure because swallowing some of the fluoride composition might cause vomiting or other undesired effects. Hopefully, the saliva pools beneath the tongue where the dental professional has placed a saliva ejector in order to evacuate it. But saliva from the parotid glands and others often do not pool as desired and so the saliva ejector must often be moved around the mouth while the fluoride tray is in place. Doing so can be inconvenient and insufficient.
One might describe the problem as inadequate evacuation of saliva during use of the fluoride tray. The same problem exists in varying degrees with other intraoral apparatuses. A saliva ejector helps, but it must be carefully positioned, held in place, and sometimes moved to whatever unexpected region which the saliva pools. Furthermore, some apparatuses (e.g., impression trays) leave no room for a saliva ejector.